Genetically modified food might need labels

Updated 8:54 pm, Wednesday, December 12, 2012

HARTFORD -- Since the federal Food and Drug Administration has failed to test genetically modified foods for potential safety risks, the General Assembly is well within its power to require labels on hundreds of such products.

That's the assessment of the leader of a nonprofit food-safety group, who, speaking over Skype before a legislative task force on Wednesday, said that the FDA has ignored a 1958 federal law requiring the testing of food additives.

Steven M. Druker, a public-interest lawyer who is the executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, told lawmakers that the FDA "has arbitrarily and illegally" exempted Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs, from testing.

"There's substantial dispute among experts about their safety," Druker said. Not labeling the material, which has made their way into about 60 percent of food products, "keeps consumers in the dark" on genetically altered plants, fish and meat, he said.

Rep. Philip Miller, D-Deep River, noting that efforts to pass labeling laws failed last year in Connecticut, New Jersey and Vermont, said the task force will consider model legislation next year.

Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, the soon-to-retire chairman of the Environment Committee, asked Druker whether federal lawmakers dropped the ball on oversight of GMOs. "I have contended that Congress has turned its back on the people of this country," Roy said to Druker.

"The FDA is breaking the law," Druker replied. "There is a plethora of disinformation that has hidden the facts from people."

The FDA's website says that genetically engineered animals can develop new traits for disease resistance and heat tolerance that can help feed more people in the world, while fish can be grown more rapidly. "Only food from GE animals that is safe to eat will be permitted into the food supply" the FDA's website says.